Women who cry wolf

On January 29, a short article appeared in the The Age online. Four sentences of this article were devoted to the fact that Police have cleared two Collingwood footballers, Dayne Beams and John McCarthy, of alleged sexual assault following grand final celebrations in 2010. It stated that Mr Beams and Mr McCarthy denied wrongdoing and co-operated with the investigation. In stark contrast to the brouhaha that erupted when allegations were made by an unnamed female in October last year, the media have by and large glossed over this story. A mere four sentences pales in comparison to the deluge unleashed by multiple Fairfax media commentators baying for blood and decrying the rampant misogyny of the AFL.

Nancy Grace on female teacher "seduction" of male student (USA - YouTube)

This CNN news story shows an important shift in attitudes in at least one segment of the media which is explicitly pointing out the double standard of America's legal system and media regarding older females having sex with underage males v. older males having sex with underage females.

95% of abuse of juvenile inmates perpetrated by females (USA)

The January 2010 report from the US Bureau of Justice Statistics titled "Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth," found that 95% of children reporting sexual misconduct by juvenile corrections staff reported it was perpetrated by a female correctional officer, even though there are more male correctional officers than female correctional officers in juvenile correctional facilities. Of course, that may be due, in part, to the fact that male children are much more likely to be incarcerated for their offences than female children are. Even so, the report goes on to say that 10.8% of male juvenile inmates in the U.S. reported sexual misconduct on the part of facility staff, as compared to only 4.7% of the female juvenile inmate population. That means that your odds of being sexually molested in a juvenile correctional facility are twice as high if you are a boy than if you are a girl.

Julian Assange, Feminism, and Rape (USA)

One unexpected consequence of the WikiLeaks saga has been to turn the spotlight on the debate over rape, sex, and consent. Julian Assange, journalism's misbegotten enfant terrible, has been hounded by accusations of sex crimes after he vaulted to fame by releasing leaked classified documents on the Internet. The charges were dismissed but then reinstated; Assange was arrested in London earlier this month and was released on bail last week while he fights extradition to Sweden. The nature of these charges has revived questions about where the law should draw the line between bad behavior and criminal acts, and whether the feminist rethinking of rape has made it easy for any man to be targeted.

Boy gang-raped by 10 women at knifepoint in Papua New Guinea

A 17-year-old village boy has been gang raped by 10 knife-wielding women in Papua New Guinea, police say. Southern Highlands Province police commander Teddy Tei said the gang of women attacked the schoolboy just outside the provincial centre of Mendi on Friday. "This is a serious matter and police are trying to identify who these animals are," he said. "More than 10 women with kitchen knives attacked him and four women had sexual intercourse with him". The boy went to hospital for treatment, he said. Police commander Tei said he feared the women may have infected the young man with HIV/AIDs.